A large number of outdoor barbecue grills for cooking meat or other foodstuffs over a bed of hot coals are known in the prior art. Many of these include kettle means for containing the foodstuff to be cooked and the hot coals for cooking the same, and a cover means for the kettle to retain the heat therein.
In barbecue grills of the prior art, draft vents for the introduction of fresh air to the burning coals on the grate are usually provided--for cooking temperature control--in the bottom wall of the kettle of the grill. These vents are typically arranged in three clusters of openings, with rotatable covers that may be moved from a closed to an open condition, and returned, as desired.
Such draft vent openings and their associated closures are unsatisfactory for a number of reasons. Even when in good operating condition, the rotatable covers frequently become so hot when the grill is in use that it is difficult to grasp them and move them from one position to another for regulation of the cooking temperature. In some grills the vent openings also serve as discharge outlets for ash from the grate, and in these grills the openings may become blocked with clinkers or large pieces of unburned charcoal. After a period of outdoor use, the rotatable covers may become so rusted as to interfere with their proper operation. After any period of long use, the covers may become so loose that the closures they provide are inadequate.
Furthermore, in the usual situation in which there are three or more clusters of draft vent openings, several settings of the respective covers are required to control the inflow of air, instead of the single setting of the present invention. Finally, the extra pieces required to be fabricated for such closures add significantly to the over-all cost of manufacture of the grill.